ANALYZING SITE SUITABILITY FOR SOLID WASTE DISPOSAL ...

1 ANALYZING site SUITABILITY for SOLID WASTE DISPOSAL through GIS multi-criteria decision making hierarchy process DOI: 65 ANALYZING SITE SUITABILITY FOR SOLID WASTE DISPOSAL THROUGH GIS MULTI-CRITERIA DECISION MAKING HIERARCHY PROCESS Sikandar Ali Shah Department of Geography, University of Karachi, (Pakistan) E-mail: Prof. Dr. Engr. Sayed Hyder Abbas Musvi Indus University, Karachi, (Pakistan) E-mail: Abeela Tameez Department of Geography, University of Karachi, (Pakistan) Masood Alam Department of Geography, University of Karachi, (Pakistan) Asim Nawaz Department of Geography, University of Karachi, (Pakistan) ANALYZING site SUITABILITY for SOLID WASTE DISPOSAL through GIS multi-criteria decision making hierarchy process DOI.

2 66 ABSTRACT Currently the human beings are encircled by multiple types of problems, out of those the environmental degradation issue is one of the major problem which is caused by over population, rapid increase of urbanization and industrialization which result in production of huge quantity of SOLID wastes. Thus the effectual SOLID WASTE management and its DISPOSAL arrangements are required. Another major problem being faced globally is to locate an appropriate area for the DISPOSAL of hazardous wastes by overcoming main constraints including environmental, economic and political for spotting of a suitable site.

3 In this study our focus is to spot a proper landfill site for the DISPOSAL of hazardous wastes for which we have selected industrial (radioactive) wastes of the district of Karachi East as a area for research. This district has wide range of Korangi industrial Area and small portion of Landhi industrial Area. In this research we have used methods of Decision Support System (DSS) based on Geographical Information System (GIS) and Remote Sensing (RS) concerning all supportable measures. With the assist of Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM), suitable alternative site for dumping SOLID WASTE has been selected on the basis of different factors performed on Arc Map , Erdas Imagine, e-Cognition developer by considering the decision maker s expectations.

4 The results show that after performing different investigations on the SUITABILITY indexes, the analyzed area which is most suitable for SOLID WASTE dumping is 200m away from Malir River. KEYWORDS Decision support system (DSS), landfill site, hazardous wastes, Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM), Spatial Decision Support System (SDSS), Analysis Hierarchy Process (AHP). 1. INTRODUCTION SOLID WASTE (SW) material contains all kinds of surplus such as trash, WASTE , sludge and few more SOLID garbage that are produced from human and other living thing s activities which is usually rejected to reuse or recycle including industrial , agricultural, commercial and society activities excluding sewage material from residential area, silt in water, poised solids in wastewater sewage from industries, suspended particles in irrigation system and other multiple common types of water pollutants.

5 From the Document Driven Decision Support System s perspective which is applied in this study , SOLID WASTE Management (SWM) is one of the most important services which are getting extensive attention in the urban agenda of several developing countries [1]. Due to less concentration of SWM, it has been observed that there are numerous environmental degradation vulnerabilities along with health risks. This problem becomes wider and reaches beyond the geographical margins of towns or cities. Generally the SOLID WASTE management is a calamity in several major urban regions of the world, as populations are attracted toward cities which continue to increase urbanization leading to continuously increasing amount of residential SOLID WASTE ; whereas space for DISPOSAL is limited.

6 Similarly in many developing cities and towns, inapt managing and DISPOSAL of municipal SOLID WASTE is most conspicuous reason of environmental degradation [2], for example air, water, soil and land pollution etc, which is caused by inappropriate DISPOSAL of municipal SOLID wastes. Although in the early 1990s; about US$25 billion is spent annually just on SOLID WASTE management by Asian countries this figure is estimated ANALYZING site SUITABILITY for SOLID WASTE DISPOSAL through GIS multi-criteria decision making hierarchy process DOI: 67 to increase approximately US$50 billion by 2025[3].

7 Rapid Increase in population results in rising quantity of SOLID WASTE with higher rate and has remained a challenge for Pakistan also, however it has been examined that the spawned WASTE is carried out and either dumped in low lying areas or burned in open environment exclusive of ANALYZING the DISPOSAL hazards and spot. This study has been carried out to assess the possibility of landfill site selection for SOLID WASTE dumping (SWD). Presently, Pakistan is suffering from SOLID WASTE issue and has received lesser attention for an adequate and appropriate ways of collection, transportation, DISPOSAL and dumping due to the large sizes of its cities, consequently, the environmental and sanitary conditions are becoming critical with the passage of time, and thus public social life is continuously deteriorating [4].

8 According to survey report of 1998 out of million population of Pakistan, 67% is living in countryside areas, whereas 33 % reside in cities. Moreover, out of 33 % of people existing in cities, from which 54 % exist in 10 main cities of Pakistan [5]. Throughout the past various decades, migration has begun from rural to urban regions. The main reasons which cause this migration are as less crop yields, slow growth in agricultural zones, unemployment and environmental damages because of deforestation, water scarcity and desertification. The huge countryside inundation has, sequentially added to the overload on urban infrastructure and services [6].

9 The at present approximately 6000 tons per day WASTE dumping is required in Karachi which is one of the largest city of Sindh province of Pakistan, but it has not been conducted in adequate and appropriate manners in collection, transportation and DISPOSAL , as a result, the sanitary and environmental circumstances have further worsened, as well as public is suffering from passing their lives in polluted situation. These exposure consist on expending rate of urban areas, structure and compactness of urban regions, planning and reign of progress, temperature and precipitation, scavenger s commotion for recyclable partition, ability sufficiency as well as the restrictions of several precincts to control the WASTE damage, collect, transport and dispose [7].

10 Karachi is a metropolitan city of Pakistan has inappropriate municipal SOLID WASTE management system as well. The existing SOLID WASTE collection and transportation management system in Karachi is not perfect. There is inadequacy for extensive term plans, consequently in some cases rambling, ad-hoc and often damaging plan, guidelines and organizational schemes exist. The municipal infrastructure construction has been lagged by the economic development, which become the bottle-neck to hinder the faster and better development of the municipal economy. WASTE collection, DISPOSAL , transport and street sweeping, duty lies with the municipal authorities.